Creation Science Rebuttals

Technical Journal (TJ)

Faint Young Sun Paradox

From TJ, Volume 15, Issue
2, August 2001

A common claim by young earth
creationists is that the sun of our solar system, when it was newly formed
4.5 billion years ago, was not capable of keeping the planet from freezing.
This is the topic of discussion in the article "The young faint Sun paradox
and the age of the solar system," by Danny Faulkner, from the Technical
Journal.1

To summarize the problem of this paradox, the faint young Sun paradox or
problem describes the apparent contradiction between observations of liquid
water early in the Earth's history and the astrophysical expectation that
the Sun's output would be only 70% as intense during that epoch as it is
during the modern epoch. The issue was raised by astronomers Carl Sagan and
George Mullen in 1972. Early in
the Earth's history, the Sun's output would be only 70% as intense during
that epoch as it is during the modern epoch. In the current environmental
conditions, this solar output would be insufficient to maintain a liquid
ocean. Astronomers Carl Sagan and George Mullen pointed out in 1972 that
this is contrary to the geologic and paleontological evidence.

2

According to the
Standard Solar Model, stars similar to the Sun should gradually
brighten over their main sequence life time.3 However, with the
predicted solar luminosity 4 billion (4 × 109) years ago and with
greenhouse gas concentrations the same as are current for the modern
Earth, any liquid water exposed to the surface would freeze.
However, the geological record shows a continually relatively warm
surface in the full early temperature record of the Earth, with the
exception of a cold phase about 2.4 billion years ago. Water-related
sediments have been found that date to as early as 3.8 billion years
ago.4
Hints of early life forms have been dated from as early as 3.5
billion years,4 and the
basic carbon isotopy is very much in line with what is found today.5
A regular change between ice ages and warm periods is only to be
found since one billion years

This problem has been
unsolved since 1972. Because of this paradox, young earth
creationists frequently use it as an argument against an old earth,
as is the case in Faulkner's article in Technical Journal. In
the past, many solutions have dealt with the topic of greenhouse
gases. They are thought to have been higher at the beginning
of earth's formation, so the planet would have been warmer.

Solution

In April 2010, the solution
that had eluded scientists for 40 years was announced, and it is
indeed a brilliant solution that perfectly fits with the evidence.
Dr. Minik Rosing, from the Natural History Museum of Denmark, and
Christian Bjerrum, from the Department of Geography and Geology at
University of Copenhagen, together with American scholars at
Stanford University, discovered the solution, which was published in
the Journal Nature.6

While most previous
explanations dealt with greenhouse gases, this explanation is not
dependent upon gases. The cloud layer encircling the earth was
much thinner than it was today, and the earth's surface was covered
with water. This means the sun's rays could warm the oceans
unobstructed by a thick atmosphere. How do we know there was a
thin cloud layer over 4 billion years ago? Because the process
of forming clouds requires chemical substances that are produced by
algae and plants, which did not exist at the time. Without the
chemical substances, there would have been a very thin cloud
covering. The lack of clouds meant that the sun's weakened
rays, some 25% less than today, would not be reflected back into
space.

As part of the study, they
scientifically measured rocks to examine the CO2 content of the
early earth. While scientists had previously estimated that it
was 30% of the atmosphere back then, the results of this analysis
showed that it was only three to four times the amount we have
today.

Conclusion

The solving of this paradox provides us with a
clear answer that is easily understood, and should eliminate this paradox
from being used as evidence of a young earth. Once again, science has
prevailed over the claims of young earth creationism. However, these
new findings do not contradict old earth creationism. You can be a
Christian and have an old earth!

1 Faulkner, Danny, The
faint young sun paradox and the age of the solar system, TJ
15(2): August 2001. Available online at answersingenesis.org/tj/v15/i2/faintsun.asp.
Also available from ICR at
http://www.icr.org/article/429/

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